What Are Property Easements?

There are several situations where you may experience an easement. If you are looking to buy property with a home, you may not know that your potential new neighbor may have a legal right to access your property. Your neighbor may need to drive through your new property to get to work or access their property and is within their right to do so. It could also be a legal right to use someone else’s land for a particular reason, such as a water company needing to run pipes under your property. There are several types of easements: utility, private, easements by necessity, and prescriptive easements. It is important to find out if any property you are interested in has an easement before finalizing the purchase. Easements don’t change when the property changes hands.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind About Easements

Trulia has a few points and rights to keep in mind when purchasing a new home or property with an easement. It is not a simple case of keeping a person or entity from entering your property once you buy it by building a fence or causing damage or delays. Before purchasing, it’s important to know whether there are any easements on the property before you close, where they are, and what type of easements they are. Some can remain after you buy the house, but others can be canceled depending on the type of easement.

Two to think about is an appurtenant easement and an easement in gross. An appurtenant easement is one in which the neighbor sought and now owns the easement, like the example in the top paragraph. With an easement in gross, you have more say, and it does not remain once the property changes hands. An example used is if a neighbor had an agreement with the original property owner to use a path that runs through the property to access a fishing pond. But the easement in gross does not remain once the property exchanges hands and you as the new owner can keep the neighbor from accessing the path on your property. Another type of easement is an easement by necessity. An example of this is if you buy property with an easement and has the only access for your neighbor to get to their property, you can not block their way otherwise you would be trespassing upon such easement.

Experienced Real Estate Attorneys in Wylie

All of this can be confusing, or you may be questioning a situation of someone illegally trespassing. If that is the case, you will need a real estate attorney that is experienced in these type of cases. Being a new homeowner, you need to know and understand your property rights. The attorneys at Edmondson Law, PLLC have the experience and tools to help you in your situation. Contact them today by calling 972-442-8326 to schedule a free consultation.

 

Information, Not Legal Advice. We provide the information on this website as a public service. The legal landscape is constantly changing and being modified by state law and case law. As a result, we cannot promise that this information is always up-to-date and reflective of the most current jurisprudence.

We do not intend this information to be legal advice. By providing this information, we are not acting as your lawyer. If you need legal advice, you should contact a lawyer through our number (972) 442-8326 or contact another attorney of your choosing.